03 March 2011

The real James P. Fyffe

Here's some relevant stuff James P. Fyfe who commanded the 59th OVI.
An excerpt from a letter he wrote to his mother after Stone's River (he seems to have been a Brigadier by this point):

My old Regiment the 59th had its usual good fortune loosing very few men in all the contests. I cannot hear of over five men being killed, about forty wounded, some few prisoners and a Missing, one thing remarkable about it is in the first days fight that Regiment was in the front line along side the 44th Indiana while the 15th Ohio and 86th Indiana were in another line away in the rear over one hundred yards, we were forced to fall back by being outflanked, and when the 59th Ohio and 44th Indiana began to fall back they were right close to the rebel lines yet did not have an Officer killed, and but few men, while the 13th Ohio had their Col. killed and three other Officers, they had 8 Officers killed and wounded out of 13 all they had, they also had about 30 men killed and a great many wounded again in the last day fight in the great charge made by Breckenridges force, it just missed my Brigade, where it stood in a single line, without any Reserves, whatever, and fell about two hundred yards to then my right, where Col. Beattys with three Brigades in three lines were parted, sweeping them backward like fall leaves before a wintry wind, one after the other the lines were swept away, If it had fallen on me, in place of where it did, I do not see how a single man could have escaped of my Brigade, as it was, I only lost a few men, one of my Colonels was made prisioner as we fell back and a few others, but I was not going to describe the battle only to allude to what narrow escape my old Regiment had, but as I have told this much I will add that Breckenridges charge was intended to cut through our lines and get to the ford over Stone River and make prisioners of our Division, they succeeded in getting to the ford, turning our right but found themselvesin what the French call, a cul de sack, they found themselves in a bend of the river running around them as it were, while the opposite bank was lined with fifty pieces of Cannon, and dark with drawn masses of Infantry, I need not state what followed - A prisioner in Murfreesboro says when the retreating Colum reached the line of guards around the town that night, broke right through, and a confused mass went streaming through the town, refusing to obey any, and all orders, retreating South -

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Shiny O'Malley

The Point of it all...

This blog will document the (fictional) wartime service of Shiny O'malley between 1862 and 1865. It will both show documentation of ACW miniatures games and documentation of solo "Duty and Honour" RPG missions. Please FEEL FREE TO APPROVE posts you enjoy!

Duty & Honour RPG

RPG Rules used: Duty & Honour by Omnihedron Games

Guns at Gettysburg

Miniatures Rules: Guns at Gettysburg by Partizan Press

My Favorite Civil War Books

Leslies Illustrated Civil War, edited by John Stanchak, 1992

My Favorite Civil War Books

The Union Soldier in Battle: Enduring the Ordeal of Combat, by Earl Hess